Making Science Sing

11/12/2022

I think science should probably be every kid’s favorite subject in school.

That’s not to knock any of the other wonderful subjects that we learn, but science is literally the class where we learn how the world we live in works. Particularly amazing, too, is the fact that humans don’t naturally discern how the world works, so learning about it frequently ends up being counter-intuitive and mind-blowing.

That said, I only remember having one teacher who presented science in that way. Not coincidentally, that’s the only science class I really remember and the only one where I remember learning very much.

When I’ve done my introductory phone calls to my students’ parents over the first six weeks, every parent that has mentioned their student’s favorite subject so far has said that it’s science.

All of them.

The credit for this goes to science itself, not to me. I’m their math teacher, too, and nobody has said their kid loves that. Their reading and writing teacher is the best I’ve ever worked with, and I know full well from seeing and hearing them that they love those classes, too. Art, orchestra, band, chorus, engineering, and the other “connections” classes - all fabulous at my school. The kids love them!

But science is their favorite so far.

The craziest part is that we haven’t even studied anything particularly interesting yet. Rocks. Minerals. Weathering, erosion, and deposition. We’re about to talk about soil. Not exactly a laundry list of fascinating material, is it?

The bottom line is, if you pay attention to the things that turn out to be awe-inspiring, science sells itself. There are two ways to present science:

"Hmmm, is this REALLY as interesting as I feel like it is?"

There’s a bunch of stuff people have already figured out, and even though you can get by just fine without knowing it and probably won’t use it in your career, I'm supposed to teach it to you, so here we go.

Life, the planet you live on, and the world around you work in amazing, orderly, and predictable ways that don’t line up with the way we naturally think they do or that sometimes we don’t even think about at all.

That second philosophy really makes for a class that kids look forward to. How does it happen? Here are seven things that make kids love science class.

1. That thing that's been right in front of your face your entire life.... What is it, exactly?

“For the next few weeks, we’re going to be studying light. Does everyone know what light is?”

Class: *nods*

“Great! What is it?”

Class: ……..

Same goes for rocks, wind, life, seasons, and any number of other topics. Kids love when I ask them this kind of question. There are so many big concepts in science that, while we may know them when we see them, if pressed to explain what they actually are, they are not at all easy to define.

Part of the wonder of science, particularly as a child, is learning that there is a rhyme and reason to everything, and that sometimes the things most worth understanding deeply about are the things that have been right in front of your face for your entire life and you’ve never given a second thought to.

"We'd better figure this out before he puts us on the spot and makes us admit that we don't actually know what rocks are."

2. "Science doesn't care about you." (Ruining things)

Last week, I started class one day by asking who loved the beach (or who wished to visit the beach for the first time). Just about everyone. I then walked them through this thought exercise:

“I want you to imagine you’re at the beach, and it’s wonderful. Think about all the things you love to do there - put your feet in the sand, play in the waves, feel the wind in your hair. It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Aren’t we lucky that the world gives us beautiful places like the beach that we look forward to going and taking in the beauty.

Now I want you to imagine, that in the middle of this perfect day at the beach, I show up. And I ask you questions like - why is there sand at the beach? Do beaches always have sand? Why isn't there sand *everywhere? Why are there waves at the beach? Do beaches always have waves? And why is it always windy at the beach? Did you know there are reasons for ALL of that, and that none -NONE - of them have to do with you, what you like, or your vacation?”

(They’ve usually started groaning in fake misery by now)

I’m sorry to have to tell you that, if I do my job well, I’m going to ruin so many things you love just like I started ruining - and will soon fully ruin - the beach for you. Most people are tourists - they think things like beaches are things that the world is so kind to give to us because it wants us to have things that we love. But it doesn’t. Science doesn’t care about you. The beach doesn’t care about you. It was created by logical, predictable processes that have nothing to do with you, or your decision to drive many hours just to look at and sit on it.

Same goes for flowers, rainbows, chirping birds, and pretty much anything else on earth that we find beautiful. We assume that they’re, somehow, for us to enjoy.

And they aren’t.

They groan, but they love thinking in this way. After a few rounds of this, they know its coming and they look forward to it. Last week I taught my class about soil. Maybe three minutes into the first lesson, one of the kids asks:

"Remember when we could just come to a place like this to relax and have fun without all that thinking?"

“You’re going to ruin this for us, aren’t you?”

"I sure hope so."

3. Contrasting Against the way "regular" people think About it (being a snob)

Once kids understand science, they feel powerful and knowledgeable. One of the ways I like to leverage this great feeling is to make our class a place where we imagine being “snobs” who have to restrain ourselves from correcting “regular” people everywhere we go.

For instance, when I taught fourth grade, we had a month-long unit on light, and within the first few days, in the interest of doing the fun stuff first, I’d lead them to the discovery that light doesn’t help us see, light is the only thing we can see. Consequently, when we think we see something, we actually don’t; we see the light that reflects off of that thing.

Once the awe of that set in, we’d talk about just how big of snobs we could sound like with knowledge. Like if your friend says, “hey, want to see my new puppy?” You will have to show INCREDIBLE RESTRAINT not to reply back “sorry, but that’s impossible. But I’d like to see light reflecting off of your new puppy, if that’s what you meant to say.”

I’ll even joke about how much trouble they’ll get in if they don’t learn to restrain this new knowledge at home. “Next time you’re in trouble, and your parent says ‘do you see the look on my face right now?’ Do NOT say, ‘sorry mom, no I can’t. I can only see the light reflecting off the look on your face.”

"Just think of what insufferable, miserable snobs we can act like once we get this figured out. I can't wait!"

You’re going to want to act like a snob everywhere you go now. We have to train for that.

4. Not just knowing what scientists know, but doing what scientists do

Any class that becomes nothing but a laundry list of facts to memorize becomes a real drag. As I said in the intro, science classes that become simply places to be told what scientific discoveries have already been made in the past aren’t very motivating.

What IS motivating, on the other hand, is getting to do the work that scientists do. I’ve already written extensively on this, so I’ll spare you a repeat explanation, but suffice it to say, leaning into the science and engineering practices at least as hard as I lean into the content portion of my science standards has been the single biggest factor in my students’ enthusiasm and their achievement since I made the change.

Just the other day I had a quick “engagement” activity planned to start a lesson where I had my students think about what the practices below had to do with making scientific discoveries, which is what we normally think of scientists doing.

I just wanted to get them thinking a bit before the lesson ahead. It turned into a 30 minute INCREDIBLE session of thinking and discussing that caught me completely off guard. They were really into it. So much so that I had to ask them to table it to come back to when I could properly prepare.

The facts of science are hit-or-miss when it comes to motivation. The work of science is motivating almost every time.

5. Standards are Floors, not ceilings

I’m a big believer in sticking to standards as a teacher. However, I also believe that standards are a floor and not a ceiling.

When I teach about soil, the role worms play in its creation isn’t part of the “minimum” about soil I’m required to teach them. But worms are fun, and they have to do with soil, so we can go beyond that floor and review some basics as we enjoy going beyond it.

When I teach about the different types of bodies flying through space, dwarf planets aren’t on the vocabulary list. But arguing about Pluto and the dwarf planet debate is fun, so I add it to the list. Learning about that particular type of body in space in contrast to the ones that are on the list is a great reinforcement anyhow.

When I taught about light refraction, the exact angle between the viewer, object, and light source needed to see a rainbow or spectrum wasn’t part of the standard, but it led to one of the most fun unplanned investigations of my entire career (and reinforced the learning about angles they were doing in math!).

Worms always bring out the smiles (and often bring out the screams). I work them into the year no matter what grade or what branch of science I teach.

Standards are great and teaching them is important, but they’re floors for learning, not ceilings. If there’s something fun or fascinating about a topic that goes past the standard minimum, I never regret doing it.

6. "This is probably way too hard, but..."

One of the things I’ve noticed about kids in science classes that’s different from the other subject areas is that, once they get that first “taste” of really understanding the natural world deeply, they gain incredible confidence in their ability to learn more. I’ve never had kids in math, writing, or social studies show up with the idea that there is absolutely nothing I could teach them that would be over their head, but they get that idea very quickly in science once they have their first experience comprehending something mind-blowing.

Related to going beyond standards, I find they really, really enjoy the challenge of trying to understand ideas that are years ahead them. For instance, the idea of photosynthesis comes up, in some way shape or form, every year in science that I’ve taught. Just the idea of photosynthesis - that plants can, seemingly miraculously, turn sunlight into food - is amazing! The details of photosynthesis at a chemical level, however, are also incredibly complicated.

Which is why I introduce them to kids even as early as fourth grade.

Put a chemical formula on the board, and you have kids’ attention. It looks hard. But it looks real. Kids have seen the periodic table and they know its a big deal and that it is a symbol of big-time science.

And they desperately want to understand it.

Even knowing minimal chemistry myself, I can walk them through the basics of how the chemical formula works, how the same numbers of atoms are present before and after the reaction, and how they recombine into different molecules to produce the new substances. The math needed to show that is minimal.

"He said this would be way over our heads, but I'm telling you, this is how it works. High school is going to be SO easy."

And even just kind of getting it makes kids feel like geniuses.

7. Doing the fun stuff first

Finally, nothing assures that science will be kids’ favorite class more than making sure the fun stuff gets on the calendar first and gets into the lessons first. In science, the fun stuff isn’t the reward for getting through the “real” stuff if there is extra time. In science, the fun stuff IS the real stuff. The fun stuff is the vehicle for teaching the details later.

Nonetheless, it can be easy to fall into the trap of saving the fun stuff for the end (“if time allows”), or worse, cutting the fun stuff first when testing or fire drills or snow days reduce teaching time to make sure there’s time to “cover” the real stuff.

"This is pretty fun - shouldn't we be waiting to do this until after he's already taught us everything?"

In science, the real stuff can be taught so much faster and easier when the fun stuff has already happened to tie it to.

Do the fun stuff first.

Conclusion

As I wrap this up, I think the common thread that binds these ideas together is not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. The details and processes of science are always going to be central to what we teach, but they shouldn't come at the expense of the major idea that the natural world is an amazing place that we nonetheless have the ability to predict and understand with scientific ways of thinking. I don't come from a scientific background. Embarrassingly, I've learned almost all the science I know just in time to teach it. So it may well be that presenting science this way comes naturally to me because I'm often experiencing it as I learn it as an adult.

It's fascinating.

It's empowering.

And it's fun.

Let's pass it on.

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